Jasmine gave the old coot a look. She knew that he was trying not to fuzz, and to an outsider, it might even look like he didn't care about her at all. However, Jasmine had been with the old man for two years at this point, and he had never looked back over his shoulder more than once when they had been travelling somewhere. However, for the short travel from the warehouse to the tavern the ancient fool had been practically looking over his shoulder at her every 5 steps. He kept grumbling to himself, clearly not wanting to tell a god that what they were doing was stupid, especially not when that god had just explained that he had come back from beating one of the other gods. Jasmine didn't mind. She wanted to help out, and if there was one thing she knew better than the old fart it was how to interact with criminals. The redheaded girl knew that she could say no, but honestly, this would be more fun than the two oldies talking about magic for the next six hours. The evening before had been boring enough, though the shower had been nice.
As they arrived at The Black Cauldron the God of Knowledge looked at Jasmine. "Are you ready?" He asked, adjusting his glasses and looking at her with a gaze that seemed to pierce her very soul. She could feel how his gaze poured into her as if he was scouring her very soul, looking into her desires and her goals. After a moment, the god seemed to smile. "Don't worry, I will take good care of the old man." He said, which made The Scribe harumph and he lifted his hand to smack Jasper across the back of his head, purely on instinct. He had even gone halfway through the motion before he seemed to remember who he was about to slap and stayed his hand. "I can take care of myself, you know." He grumbled, though the fact that if things went wrong, Erik wouldn't be left alone made Jasmine feel much more confident. When she had found him wandering the streets of Salezstadt he had looked so lonely, just like she had been. She would hate for him to end up like that again.
Jasmine made her way into the tavern, she knew how to hide, and while most people seemed to think it involved lurking around in the corners, it was much easier to do in plain sight. She followed the woman inside, making it look like they were a pair and Jasmine made sure to keep looking up at the woman, as if she was a helpless child, just following her mother around for errands. As expected, nobody gave her a second glance, and she quickly broke away to follow another man, allowing her to walk deeper into the well-kept tavern slowly. She quickly spotted her target, the man was sitting pretty much directly behind what could only be the shadiest person Jasmine had ever seen. She made sure to look over the farmer a couple of times, ensuring that it was indeed him she was supposed to steal from. She quickly managed to get into a blind spot that the farmer had, and with careful hands, she slowly fished the golden round Revals out of his pouch. She did her best to stay quiet and after five coins she took a deep breath. This was more money than she had ever seen. She was barely halfway through the pouch on the man's side, but she had gotten enough to execute the next step of the plan. She concentrated and with a deep breath, she made sure to clumsily put her hand in the man's pocket, making the coins jingle and clank. The farmer looked down and Jasmine gave him a quick smile that seemed to convey smugness before she ran.
The farmer was after her in a flash, as she moved between patrons and waiters, hoping not to be caught. She could hear the farmer scream something at the top of his lounges and Jasmine felt her breath get caught as she had to tumble underneath a table to make it past a couple of large men that had decided to talk in the middle of one of the aisles between the tables. Jasmine felt her heart in her throat and she quickly made it to the door, seeing the Shady-looking man and the farmer both walking across tables in an effort to get to her. She vanished out of the door, and hurried down one of the side streets, knowing that her two pursuers would spot her as soon as she turned the corner. She looked back and was a bit disappointed to see that they hadn't gotten out of the door, she waited for five seconds, allowing them to get out of the door and spot her before she moved down the street. She could hear them, though as she made it to the end of the alleyway, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she looked into the hood of the shady man from the tavern. A pair of burning red eyes stared back at her from inside the hood. She swallowed hard, as he had simply stepped out from the shadows, and his vice-like grip didn't allow her to twist free.
Jasper saw how the shady man seemed to melt into the shadows and an instant later he appeared next to Jasmine. There was definitely something funky happening here, that wasn't magic, and it felt more akin to a Domain power. However, unless that shady figure was Daikia that couldn't be true, and he assumed that the goddess of drows would never lower herself to hang around in a bar. Things were quickly spiralling out of control. Jasper had expected the shady-looking distraction to be actually shady-looking. The way that he had acted when Jasper had confronted Longknife had made the god believe that he really was nothing more than a decoy. "Time for us to get things moving, think you can take Longknife?" Jasper asked The Scribe and the old man nodded, starting to run towards the alley. Their intentions had been for Jasmine to get caught mid-crime and have Longknife confront her, and offer her a part in his operations, but things were getting too heated, while it could technically still work, they couldn't risk it, and stepping in now would be their best option.
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Jasper dove after The Scribe, and he felt himself empowered with each step, using Elementalism to force the wind to carry him faster and further. It wasn't as good as using the Wind Domain, however, it beat his normal running speed. He even managed to make a couple of jumps between the walls landing in front of Jasmine and the figure, bypassing Longknife as a radiant green barrier sprang up between the walls, cutting Longknife off and forcing him to face The Scribe who was looking at him with a menacing glare. Jasper turned his attention to the hooded figure and wondered how to best approach this. "I don't think we have met," Jasper said, looking for a way to get Jasmine out of the way before it was too late. The hooded figure smirked. "Oh, but we have" His voice was dripping with venom and he seemed to linger on each syllable as if tasting it. "There is no hiding your true identity, Armandos" He continued, and Jasper felt a bit of relief that this figure didn't know his actual name.
They were at a stalemate, Jasper couldn't cast a spell without endangering not only Jasmine but anything that would seriously affect this person would probably threaten to take out the entire city. "Well, I am pleased to meet you, but I don't think I caught your name. You mortals all look the same after all." Jasper said, though that wasn't true at all, he wanted to try and taunt the shady character into doing something foolish, calling him a mortal might be Jasper's best shot. While Jasper couldn't see the man's face he could practically hear the smile. The sound of cracked and dry lips spreading into a wide grin was barely there, but to a god, it was like ringing a bell.
"The god of knowledge should not lie. It doesn't suit you." The figure said. Jasmine gave a groan as the grip on her shoulder only grew stronger. "Please, allow me to make myself clear. You will not be coming after me, and you will stop looking into the thieves guild. It is not the business of the gods who run it. To help you keep this incentive in mind, consider this little rogue collateral." The figure said, eye blazing before Jasper felt the build-up of Divine energy around the being.
Jasper hated mentalism, but it seemed to be his only way. Taking away people's free will was like burning down a library, but he had no choice. He threw a spell called mind controlled, which he had prepared for this situation, something that his Luck Domain had told him would have a 99% chance of incapacitating the mortal. However, as Jasper hit the shady figure with the spell it was like trying to break down a wall with a sponge.
Jasper had a feeling why that might be, it was the same reason why he was almost immune to magic, and Celeste was immune to time-based effects. This being had a Domain that included mental manipulation.
With his main weapon gone, Jasper was left to react on instinct. A fireball sprang from Jasper's fingers as a subconscious action, unleashing the power of a small sun at the vile monster that was pulling Jasmine into the shadows. He had to cancel it with a mental effort, as the figure pulled the child in front of him, using her as a shield before they both vanished, leaving Jasper alone.
Fear and fury poured through Jasper as he turned his attention to the only two people left. He moved fast, instantly dismissing the green veil in front of him as if it had been nothing but cobwebs he brushed out of the way and not a barrier that would quite literally kill any living being passing through it. Jasper had put someone innocent in the crossfire because he had let himself be tricked. He had been so confident in his own powers that he had let himself get lulled into a false sense of security. He grabbed Longknife's throat holding him off the ground with little effort. "I don't know anything, I swear." The two-faced thief said, but Jasper was done asking questions. "Wrong," He said, feeling the power pour through him. Jasper was the god of knowledge, and he was going to pry every single speck of knowledge from this lowlife.
Erik had been furious at the god. He had been ready to start casting spells at the man the moment he saw Jasmine disappear. However, seeing the raw emotion on the god's face, Erik the Scribe knew that the god was sharing his own feelings. Even so, the way he dealt with Longknife... It was cruel. It had taken less than a second for the man to become a husk, though Armandos didn't stop pulling knowledge from him, siphoning it away. It hadn't been Longknife that had stolen away Jasmine, though Erik was still angry with the thief, he couldn't be blamed for not betraying a man that had been sitting right next to him. As the vengeful god walked out of the alley, Erik didn't say anything, he just followed along, knowing that they would not stop before they had gotten Jasmine back.